In the manufacture of some types of rigid, pin-populated printed wiring boards, terminal pins are inserted into apertures in the board and electrically engage portions of printed wiring on the boards to provide for connections to electrical circuits. Typically, the spacing between adjacent apertures is extremely small. For example, the spacing between apertures on one board is 0.125 inch. Moreover, each terminal pin typically has a square cross section of, for example, 0.025 inch, except in those areas where the pin is formed with lateral ears having a push shoulder and an aperture-engaging portion intermediate the ends thereof.
Due to the close spacing between apertures and the small size of the pins, it is most difficult and tedious to assemble the pins into the boards on an individual basis. Additionally, the relatively small size of the pins necessitates delicate handling prior to and during insertion of the pins into the apertures in the board. However, where each board may contain thousands of closely-spaced apertures, efficiency and economy dictate that the pins be prealigned and gang-inserted into the board apertures.
Typically, terminal pins are manufactured by forming them transversely across continuous strips of sheet stock in a parallel array with opposite ends of the pins interconnected by opposed parallel end carriers to form a continuous terminal strip. With the pins still adhering to the end carriers, the pins can be transported in large rolls. A number of pins, with end carriers still attached, can be taken from a roll of pins by merely shearing the end carriers at an appropriate point. Such short strips of pins, with one or both end carriers still attached, are often referred to as "pin combs" or "pin assemblies." To assemble the pins into a printed wiring board, one of the end carriers is separated from insertion ends of the pins and the other end carrier may be used as a pusher member to insert the separated ends into apertures in the board. After the assembly operation, the remaining end carrier is separated from the other ends of the terminal pins.
In an alternative technique, one of the end carriers is removed and the pins are assembled into a pin-carrying shuttle of the type disclosed in a copending application for U.S. patent in the sole name of W. M. Chisholm, Ser. No. 326,103, filed on Nov. 30, 1981, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,628 (which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 192,271 filed on Sept. 30, 1980, now abandoned). Such a shuttle carries terminal pins arranged to populate a transverse row on a board. Once the pins are firmly positioned or secured in the shuttle, the other end carrier can be broken from the pin ends; and the shuttle can be stored, carried and arranged in a multi-purpose transport tray of the type shown in a copending joint U.S. patent application Ser. No. 373,191 filed on Apr. 29, 1982, now abandoned, in the name of W. M. Chisholm et al.
Alternatively, the parallel strip of terminal pins can be manufactured with single carriers connecting the bodies of the pins intermediate the ends thereof and located between each successive pin in the strip. Once the pins have been assembled and secured into a shuttle of the type shown in the above-mentioned Chisholm sole application, the body carriers of the pins can be removed in a punch and die set.